What Happened on December 15th in History
30 historical events on this date
World War I: The Serbian Army recaptures Belgrade from the invading Austro-Hungarian Army.
World War I, or the First World War, also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. Major areas of conflict included Europe and the...
A gas explosion at Mitsubishi HĆjĆ coal mine, in Kyushu, Japan, kills 687.
The Mitsubishi HĆjĆ mine disaster occurred December 15, 1914, in Kyushu, Japan. A gas explosion at the HĆjĆ (Hojyo) coal mine killed 687. It is the worst mining accident in Japanese history.
World War I: An armistice between Russia and the Central Powers is signed.
On 15 December [O.S. 2 December] 1917, an armistice was signed between the Russian Republic led by the Bolsheviks on the one side, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Kingdom of Bulgaria, the...
Anarchist insurrection suppressed in Zaragoza, Spain.
The anarchist insurrection of December 1933 was an attempted revolution by Spanish anarchists, in response to the victory of the right-wing in the 1933 Spanish general election. It was the third of...
Gone with the Wind (highest inflation adjusted grossing film) receives its premiere at Loew's Grand Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American epic historical romance film adapted from the 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell. It was produced by David O. Selznick of Selznick International Pictures and...
The Holocaust in Ukraine: German troops murder over 15,000 Jews at Drobytsky Yar, a ravine southeast of the city of Kharkiv.
The Holocaust saw the systematic mass murder of Jews in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine, the General Government, the Crimean General Government and some areas which were located to the east of...
World War II: The Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse begins during the Guadalcanal campaign.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major...
World War II: The Battle of Arawe begins during the New Britain campaign.
The Battle of Arawe was fought between Allied and Japanese forces during the New Britain campaign of World War II. The battle formed part of the Allied Operation Cartwheel and was a diversion before...
World War II: a single-engine UC-64A Norseman aeroplane carrying United States Army Air Forces Major Glenn Miller is lost in a flight over the English Channel.
The Noorduyn Norseman, also known as the C-64 Norseman, is a Canadian single-engine bush plane designed to operate from unimproved surfaces. Distinctive stubby landing gear protrusions from the...
Occupation of Japan/Shinto Directive: General Douglas MacArthur orders that Shinto be abolished as the state religion of Japan.
Japan was occupied and administered by the Allies of World War II from the surrender of the Empire of Japan on September 2, 1945, at the war's end until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect on...
Richard Pavlick is arrested for plotting to assassinate U.S. President-Elect John F. Kennedy.
Richard Paul Pavlick was an American postal worker from New Hampshire who stalked U.S. Senator and U.S. president-elect John F. Kennedy, with the intent of assassinating him. On December 11, 1960,...
King Mahendra of Nepal suspends the country's constitution, dissolves parliament, dismisses the cabinet, and imposes direct rule.
Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, was the King of Nepal from 13 March 1955 until his death in 1972. He led the 1960 royal coup, in which he dismissed the government, jailed other political leaders,...
Eichmann trial: Adolf Eichmann is sentenced to death after being found guilty by an Israeli court of 15 criminal charges, including charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people, and membership of an outlawed organization.
The Eichmann trial was the 1961 trial of major Holocaust perpetrator Adolf Eichmann, who was captured in Argentina by Israeli agents and taken to Israel to stand trial. Eichmann was a senior Nazi...
Project Gemini: Gemini 6A, crewed by Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford, is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida. Four orbits later, it achieves the first space rendezvous, with Gemini 7.
Project Gemini was the second United States human spaceflight program to fly. It was conducted after the first American crewed space program, Project Mercury, while the Apollo program was still in...
The Silver Bridge collapses, killing 46 people.
The Silver Bridge was an eyebar-chain suspension bridge built in 1928 that carried U.S. Route 35 over the Ohio River, connecting Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Gallipolis, Ohio. Officially named...
Soviet spacecraft Venera 7 successfully lands on Venus. It is the first successful soft landing on another planet.
Venera 7 was a Soviet spacecraft, part of the Venera series of probes to Venus. When it landed on the Venusian surface on 15 December 1970, it became the first spacecraft to execute a successful...
John Paul Getty III, grandson of American billionaire J. Paul Getty, is found alive near Naples, Italy, after being kidnapped by an Italian gang on July 10.
John Paul Getty III was the grandson of the American-born British oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, who was once the richest man in the world. While living in Rome in 1973, he was kidnapped by the...
The American Psychiatric Association votes 13â0 to remove homosexuality from its official list of psychiatric disorders, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the...
U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will recognize the People's Republic of China and sever diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan).
James Earl Carter Jr. was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, Carter served as the 76th...
A suicide car bombing targeting the Iraqi embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, levels the embassy and kills 61 people, including Iraq's ambassador to Lebanon. The attack is considered the first modern suicide bombing.
On December 15, 1981, the Iraqi Shi'a Islamist group al-Dawa carried out a suicide car bombing targeting the Iraqi embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. The explosion leveled the embassy and killed 61 people,...
Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights relating the abolition of capital punishment is adopted.
The Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, is a subsidiary agreement to the International Covenant on...
The Troubles: The Downing Street Declaration is issued by British Prime Minister John Major and Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds.
The Troubles were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began...
Tajikistan Airlines Flight 3183 crashes in the desert near Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, killing 85.
Tajikistan Airlines Flight 3183 was a Tupolev Tu-154B-1 that crashed on 15 December 1997 on approach to Sharjah Airport in the United Arab Emirates. There was a sole survivor, the navigator, from a...
The third reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is shut down.
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP) is a nuclear power plant undergoing decommissioning. ChNPP is located near the abandoned city of Pripyat in northern Ukraine, 16.5 kilometres (10Â mi)...
The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after 11 years and $27,000,000 spent to stabilize it, without fixing its famous lean.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa, or simply the Tower of Pisa, is the campanile, or freestanding bell tower, of Pisa Cathedral. It is known for its nearly four-degree lean, the result of an unstable...
Introduction of the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor into USAF active service.
The Lockheed MartinâBoeing F-22 Raptor is an American twin-engine, jet-powered, all-weather, supersonic stealth fighter aircraft. As a product of the United States Air Force's Advanced Tactical...
A boat carrying 90 asylum seekers crashes into rocks off the coast of Christmas Island, Australia, killing 48 people.
A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to...
The South Sudanese Civil War begins when opposition leaders Dr. Riek Machar, Pagan Amum and Rebecca Nyandeng vote to boycott the meeting of the National Liberation Council at Nyakuron.
The South Sudanese Civil War was a multi-sided civil war in South Sudan fought from 2013 to 2018 between government and opposition forces. The civil war caused rampant human rights abuses, including...
Gunman Man Haron Monis takes 18 hostages inside a café in Martin Place for 16 hours in Sydney. Monis and two hostages are killed when police raid the café the following morning.
Man Haron Monis was an Iranian-born refugee and Australian citizen who took hostages in a siege at the Lindt Chocolate Café at Martin Place, Sydney on 15 December 2014, lasting for 16 hours, until...
A 6.5MwâŻearthquake strikes the Indonesian island of Java in the city of Tasikmalaya, resulting in four deaths.
The 2017 Java earthquake occurred on 15 December 2017 when a moment magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Java, specifically the city of Tasikmalaya on 23:47:58 West Indonesian...